In their first proper recording session for EMI's Parlophone label, the Beatles laid down "Love Me Do" under producer George Martin's direction. Martin was unimpressed with drummer Pete Best's replacement, Ringo Starr, and brought in session musician Andy White for a later re-recording, though Starr's version was the one eventually released. The single reached number 17 on the UK charts, a modest but crucial first step for a band about to reshape popular music.
Tension surrounded the session from the start. George Martin had reservations about the band's drumming and briefly considered replacing Ringo Starr entirely, who had only just joined the group weeks earlier after Pete Best's controversial firing. Starr, painfully aware he was on probation, played through the session nervous that his new job might already be in jeopardy.
The song itself, a simple blues-inflected number co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney years earlier, featured a memorable harmonica riff that Lennon played, an instrument he'd picked up on a whim after hearing a similar sound on a Bruce Channel record. Martin initially wanted a different arrangement but eventually let the group's instincts guide much of the recording.
Released the following month, "Love Me Do" was no immediate sensation, but it established a working relationship between the Beatles and George Martin that would produce some of the most influential music of the twentieth century. Within two years, the same band would be igniting Beatlemania on both sides of the Atlantic.
Key people: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Martin